Possible Rent Law Violation Investigated : Moorpark: A mobile home park owner is allegedly requiring tenants to sign a lease that may conflict with a city ordinance.

The city of Moorpark is investigating claims that the owner of the Villa del Arroyo mobile home park is violating the terms of a rent control ordinance overwhelmingly adopted by city voters last month.

City Councilman Scott Montgomery said he has been approached by both current and prospective park tenants who say that park owner Dale Williams is requiring new arrivals to sign long-term leases that contain provisions violating the city’s rent control ordinance.

Specifically, the city and park tenants are objecting to a provision in the lease that calls for a 10% rent increase upon the vacancy of a mobile home, which they say would be in excess of increases permitted under the local law.

The five-year lease Williams has allegedly been forcing all new tenants to sign for the past few years also contains a clause that exempts the landlord-tenant contract from any rent control laws, park tenants say.

In response to a petition drive by Williams last year, the city paid roughly $23,000 to hold an April 13 special election in which 85% of the voters favored the city’s rent control ordinance.

The ordinance regulates the size of rent increases Williams can impose when mobile homes are sold, limiting them to an increase of 5% annually or the Consumer Price Index--whichever is less. It also allows only two such increases every five years.

The City Council is expected to discuss allegations that the park owner is violating the local law at its meeting tonight. The council last week asked City Atty. Cheryl Kane to prepare a report on the legal ramifications of the issue.

The dispute over leasing practices at the 240-unit mobile home park on Los Angeles Avenue first emerged last week when two prospective park tenants appeared before the council.

Don and Rhonda Grenier, Simi Valley residents who are in the process of buying a mobile home in Williams’ park, said they were told that they would be forbidden from moving in unless they signed a five-year lease that was exempt from the city’s rent control ordinance.

“They were saying, ‘You sign it or you don’t move in,’ ” Rhonda Grenier said Tuesday.

“We were going to buy the unit in November, but we heard about this vote that was going to be cast in April so we put it off,” she said. “After the election, we went in to sign the paperwork and they said it was mandatory to sign a five-year lease so we would be exempt from the ordinance.”

Lisa Davis, who manages the Villa del Arroyo park for Williams, said the couple was “encouraged” to sign a five-year lease, but would be told that they also have the option of going month to month or signing a one-year lease.

“This is the first prospective tenant to come into the park and buy a home since rent control passed and he will be offered all three agreements,” Davis said.

Davis said the long-term lease does include a provision exempting the agreement from any rent control laws, but rejected the claim that that represented a violation of the city ordinance.

“If a person voluntarily signs a long-term lease with the owner, if they read the lease and they know what they’re signing, then we have a two party agreement where those parties agree they are exempt from city rent control,” he said.

But Davis stressed that tenants must be given the option of other lease agreements, which some park tenants are unconvinced is occurring.

Frank Hilton, a park tenant who was a vocal advocate of rent control, said Williams has been requiring the long-term leases for the past several years, and has thus far been unwilling to accept tenants who refuse to commit to five years in the park.

“This is not a mutual agreement, because these people are being forced to do this if they want to come into the park,” Hilton said. “They are telling them outright that either they sign the lease or don’t come into the park.”